Surviving your first year in Manor Lords may seem daunting, so here are some first steps to ensure solid footing for your settlement.
How to Survive Your First Year in Manor Lords?
- Resource availability – Establish your settlement close to food, water, and forests. These resources will keep your villagers fed and warm during the winter months.
- Early Infrastructure – with these resources in mind, you will want to construct these buildings within the first year:
- Well – Provides your villagers with water; place along underground water near your Burgage Plots.
- Hunting Camp/Forager Hut – Depending on availability, either or both buildings will provide ample food for your villagers. A Granary will store and distribute food so they do not spoil or rot.
- Logging Camp and Woodcutter’s Lodge – Both gather wood, the former for construction and the latter for firewood to keep your villagers warm during the winter. A Storehouse will store and distribute goods so they do not spoil or rot.
- Marketplace – The families of your workers will need a place to sell their goods, and your Burgage Plots satisfy their needs through the marketplace.
- Build your Burgage Plots close to the market, and if you can, optimize where families are working to minimize travel time between workplaces.
- Assigned Families – Assign families close to their home, including the Granary and Storehouse. Remember, though, that at least one family needs to remain unassigned to construct buildings and pull the ox that transports supplies.
- Bandit Camps – In the first year, you may find a bandit camp near your settlement. Raise a unit of spear militia and experience your first taste of combat as you fight them off and destroy their camp.
- Winter Prep – As winter approaches, add more families to your Woodcutter’s Lodge to produce extra firewood or, if you have excess timber, construct more Burgage Plots to attract people into your settlement.
- Use Your Wealth – If you have the wealth, Level 1 Burgage Plots with enough room for a backyard extension can add a passive production of vegetables, eggs, or hides from goats, further producing excess goods for your settlement to develop.
Consider mining & trading early as well, with refined goods like tiles and tools providing a means to start trading. The incoming wealth provides a means to purchase other goods from merchants, upgrade your backyard extensions, and even upgrade to Level 2 Burgage Plots, beginning your path to artisan families.
By spring of the next year, you should have a solid foundation in settlement operations, and start investing in farming, artisan specialties, and expanding your influence. Lastly, a word of caution – be mindful about expanding too quick, so you do not outpace firewood and food production. Unhappy peasants will leave your settlement, causing job gaps and further unhappiness within your settlement.